It's Paris in the late Forties.
A young man (Robert Hutton), with his wife (Patricia Roc) and his girl friend (Jean Wallace), is overheard in a bar bemoaning how long it will most likely take before his rich aunt dies and he will inherit a great deal of money.
A few days later the aunt is stabbed to death.


This movie is part of the collection: Feature Films

Director: Burgess Meredith
Producer: Irving Allen, Franchot Tone
Production Company: A&T Film Production (Allen-Tone)
Sponsor: k-otic.com
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: Mystery; Thriller; Charles Laughton
Contact Information: www.k-otic.com

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: keygrip - - September 6, 2009
Subject: not one to remember
This is a little seen failed attempt at a Hitchcockian style thriller let down by a script lacking in suspense and poor sepia like colour.
Nice performance by a restrained Laughton, but more quality was needed in the supporting roles.
Good use of Paris locations but the film became quite tiresome well before the inevitable climax.

Reviewer: Penda - - March 11, 2008
Subject: Great film
I thought that this work was engaging and highly entertaining. Well worth a watch. Four stars for the stars and for Paris. Very crafty antagonist with intriguing psychology.

Reviewer: rq52 - - March 8, 2008
Subject: The Man in the Effel Tower
I wish to answer the reviewer about the film in question. Yes, you are right; it is worthy aof another viewing but the comment about the use of color. The Ansco Color, a process developed by Ansco film company. Like Kodak, it too dabble with the color in films. The process is more expensive than Cinecolor and is twice as good as Truecolor. However, the Technicolor process is the most expensive of all. Natalie Kamus. whose husband developed the process, had her business claws all over the process after her husband passed away. She acted as color consulter thoughout the 40's and 50's and if a film company wanted this process, they would have to pay royally for it's use. 3 stars for the film and two for the color process which was used. Look at it this way, they could of made the film in B/W, but because it was Paris, they used what they could afford.

Reviewer: Antsy - - March 7, 2008
Subject: Worthwhile but should have been better
It has many promising elements - based on a Maigret novel by Georges Simenon, Maigret played by the great Charles Laughton; competent actors like Franchot Tone and Burgess Meredith; and it has the still pretty effective climactic chase on the Eiffel Tower. Overall, though, it's not that memorable, maybe thanks to the clumsiness of first time director Burgess Meredith and first time producer Franchot Tone. Also, the credited cast member "The City of Paris" was probably a lot more effective it its role when the movie still had vibrant colour - it's faded to depressing sepia now. All the same, there's enough good in it to make it worth at least one viewing and maybe more.